Generally, a device such as a vending machine is equipped with a coin processing device for discriminating the genuineness of input coins and dispensing coins according to the amount of change.
This coin processing device generally comprises the following two devices:
(1) Coin sorting device that discriminates the truth or false of input coins and returns false coins, and discriminates the denominations of true coins and sorts them according to the denominations. PA1 (2) Coin dispensing device that accommodates true coins sorted by the coin sorting device according to denominations and dispenses coins according to the amount of change.
Among them, the coin dispensing device comprises a detachably mounted cassette type coin tube for stacking and storing and accommodating coins of a specific denomination, and a coin dispensing unit for dispensing coins from the bottom face of the coin tube.
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing the aforementioned coin dispensing device 1.
Unlike a so-called plural denomination coin dispensing device that accommodates coins of a plurality of denominations and selects and dispenses coins of specific denominations according to the amount of change among them, the coin dispensing device 1 shown in FIG. 3 accommodates and dispenses only frequently used coins. The coin dispensing device 1 of this type is generally arranged in the neighborhood of the plural denomination coin dispensing device for dispensing coins of a plurality of denominations.
The coin dispensing device 1 comprises a cassette type coin tube 2 which can be freely mounted and dismounted, for accommodating only frequently used coins, and a coin dispensing means 4 for dispensing a number of coins 3 stacked and stored in the coin tube 2 one by one from the lowest one.
The coin dispensing means 4 comprises a slide piece 7 shuttling in the direction of the arrow A along a guide groove 6 of a coin base 5 arranged at the lowest part of the coin tube 2 and a shuttling means 8 for shuttling the slide piece 7.
By using this coin dispensing means 4, when the slide piece 7 moves in the direction of the arrow A by the shuttling means 8, a guiding projection 7a of the slide piece 7 and the coin 3 located at the lowest position among the coins accommodated in the coin tube 2 come into contact with each other.
When the slide piece 7 moves more in the direction of the arrow A, as shown in FIG. 4, the coin 3 located at the lowest position and being contact with the guiding projection 7a is ejected from the coin tube 2, drops downward along a main base plate 9 of the coin dispensing device 1, and is dispensed to a coin dispensing opening not shown in the drawing.
Numeral 10 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 indicates a guide hole which is formed in the back of the coin tube 2 and in which the guiding projection 7a is inserted, and 11 indicates a coin dispensing hole formed in the front of the coin tube 2.
On the other hand, the shuttling means 8, comprises a drive motor 12 as shown in FIG. 4, and a cam mechanism for converting the rotational force of the drive motor 12 to shuttling linear motion of the slide piece 7 which will be described hereunder.
FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the slide piece 7 showing the cam mechanism of the conventional shuttling means 8 mentioned above.
The cam mechanism, as shown in FIG. 5(a), comprises a rotation plate 21 fixed to the tip end of a rotation shaft 12a of the drive motor 12 (FIG. 4), a cam shaft 22 which is a cylindrical cam projected on the top face of the tip end of the rotation plate 21, and a cam groove 23 formed in a bottom face 7a of the slide piece 7 in which the cam shaft 22 is inserted.
Conventionally, the cam groove 23 is formed linearly at right angles to the shuttling direction (the arrow A) of the slide piece 7. Numeral 7b shown in FIG. 5(a) indicates the tip end of the slide piece 7.
By use of the shuttling means 8 having such a cam mechanism, when the drive motor 12 (FIG. 4) is driven and the rotation shaft 12a starts rotation counterclockwise from the initial position of a rotation angle of 0 degree as shown in FIG. 5(a), the cam mechanism 23 moves following the rotation of the cam shaft 22, and the slide piece 7 slides backward to the farthest backward position when the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 12a is 180 degrees as shown in FIG. 5(b). When the rotation angle of the rotation shaft 12a becomes 360 degrees, the slide piece 7 slides forward to the farthest forward position as shown in FIG. 5(c).
As described above, by use of this conventional shuttling means 8, the slide piece 7 shuttles by the distance L in the direction of the arrow A as shown in FIGS. 5(b) and 5(c), and during the period, the slide piece 7 is contact with the coin 3 accommodated in the coin tube 2, moves the coin 3 by a distance corresponding to the shuttling distance L, and dispenses it from the coin tube 2 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.
The alternate long and short dash line F shown in FIG. 5 is a reference line passing the center Oa of the rotation shaft 12a.
Meanwhile, according to the aforementioned coin dispensing device 1, as shown in FIG. 4, to dispense the coin 3 accommodated in the coin tube 2, it is necessary to change the shuttling distance L of the slide piece 7 shown in FIGS. 5(b) and 5(c) according to the diameter of the accommodated coin 3. Especially, when the coin 3 to be dispensed has a large diameter, it is necessary to secure the long shuttling distance L of the slide piece 7 accordingly.
However, according to the aforementioned coin dispensing device 1 having the conventional shuttling means 8, to increase the shuttling distance L of the slide piece 7 shown in FIG. 5, it is necessary to increase the distance X from the rotation center Oa of the rotation shaft 12a to the center Ob of the cam shaft 22 as shown in FIG. 5(a), and change the forming position of the cam groove 23 according to the increase of the distance X. Accordingly, it is also necessary to change the distance Y from the center Ob of the cam shaft 22 to the fore end 7b of the slide piece 7.
Furthermore, when the distance X from the rotation center Oa of the rotation shaft 12a to the center Ob of the cam shaft 22 is increased, to maintain the contact of the cam groove 23 with the cam shaft 22, it is also necessary to increase the length of the cam groove 23 accordingly and hence it is also necessary to increase the width W of the slide piece 7.
Therefore, in the coin dispensing device 1 having the conventional shuttling means 8, when it is attempted to secure the long shuttling distance L of the slide piece 7 in correspondence with dispensing of coins with a large diameter, it is necessary to greatly change the design of each component parts and hence there are disadvantages that not only the manufacturing cost is unavoidably increased but also the coin dispensing device becomes large.
The present invention has been developed with the foregoing in view and is directed to provide a coin dispensing device for increase the shuttling distance of the slide piece at the time of dispensing of coins without greatly changing the design of each component part.